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ORS-class heavy cruiser
Operational History Origins The origins for one of the Covenant's oldest and most respected capital ships lies during the , which began in . Although the Covenant attempted to unify themselves by provoking a war of aggression with the fledging Jehetma, they were forced to fight a war on two fronts when one of their most elderly fleets, the -dominated Fleet of Enduring Prosperity, declared they would cede themselves from the Covenant and 'liberate' their worlds. Despite their use of outdated warships, the experienced Supreme Commander Garsc 'Refumee was able to utilise shockingly-effective hit-and-run attacks on Covenant supply lines, forcing fleets to pull themselves back as they were weakened from dozens of small setbacks. While the blamed this on the Fleet Masters of their military, with executions being frequently conducted to encourage their armies, an attack on itself forced them to take 'Refumee's forces far more seriously. The Covenant founded the shipwright guild in , and immediately put them to work into developing a viable counter to 'Refumee's forces. Despite being given the largest shipyard ever built at the time and protected by a of the Hierarch's most loyal troops, the upcoming behemoth would prove to be a challenge to build. The unfamiliarity of the design team would them create enemies with each other until they were forced to work together, not helped by the fact that the High Council demanded that they use the most cutting-edge technologies available. Indeed, these issues forced them to accept that a giant battleship was impossible to accomplish under such conditions, and instead began working on a series of smaller ones. Within a three-year period and after countless redesigns, the Song of Victory would unveil their first new warship - the , a smaller but nevertheless powerful ship that was built with a micro-singularity disturbance field which hard-countered 'Refumee's preferred hit-and-run tactics. However, these alone weren't enough to ensure the Covenant's superiority, especially since the Jehetma ships were often much larger than their Covenant equivalents. As a result, to help speed up development even further on the all-too-necessary battleship, they took the base of the RCS as a starting point and reworked it into their needs. Once the design was finalised and approved, construction on a prototype began in 271 BCE. Unfortunately, the project would face outside attention. The sudden appearance of a new Covenant cruiser, one which 'Refumee's spies had never suspected much less predicted was built, had cost him dearly in his engagements against the Covenant, especially since they could go toe-to-toe with all but his largest ships. He knew he needed an edge and began retasking his spies with determining where the new cruisers were designed so he could interrogate and if possible recruit the shipwrights to his cause. It would take years for him to get any successful leads, until finally an ally in the High Council traded information on the shipyard's whereabouts for a position of power in his faction. Saboteurs were initially deployed to try and destroy the ship in dock, however, the heavy guard and carefully-chosen nature of the station's defenders made this difficult and plots were easily thwarted. When a direct assault proved to require the resources of an entire fleet, 'Refumee chose to bid his time until it the ship was ready for launch. Human-Covenant War Variants Duram-pattern An anomaly among its class, the Duram-pattern is a specialised line of cruisers built to combine lethal burst power with advanced technology. Fielded on a rare basis by the , they often act as vanguards to total invasions. ''Reverence''-pattern A specialised upgrade of the Varric-pattern heavy cruiser, the Reverence-pattern grand cruiser is a heavy command ship which is fielded solely by the Swords of Sanghelios. Ships of the Line Gallery Category:Covenant ships Category:Cruiser classes